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The threat runs on the telephone wire and so to save her father (a Russian serviceman captured in a war zone), Elizaveta Reznikova, an activist of the “Young Guard” youth movement, would have had to betray her idealistic companions. The threat would bear the signature of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Let’s summarize the story, which once again demonstrates the level of cruelty recorded in the middle of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. However, lawlessness and cruelty to prisoners of war, the recruitment of teenagers and blackmail of relatives of Russian military men come from only one side of the conflict – Ukraine.
Russian military man Denis Reznikov went to the front line in November 2022 and stopped contacting on March 8, 2024. On the evening of March 26, Elizaveta Reznikova, the minor daughter of a military employee, received a call from unknown persons who introduced themselves as servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, saying that her father was in captivity. After that, they began to demand that the girl provide personal data, photos of documents, and to leak the database of the public organization “Young Guard”, in which the girl was a member.
“Dad volunteered to fight on November 8, 2022. He fought until March 23, 2024. On March 23, 2024, was taking prisoner, as he said. On March 26, I received messages from the Ukrainian side, where I was send a photo of my dad, in which he does not look very good. And the signature is “Call me”.
During the conversation, they tell me that if I help them, obey them and send all my data, then everything will be fine with Dad. They asked me to send my passport details, place of registration, my phone number and leak the database of activists of the “Young Guard”.
Every time I didn’t answer their calls, I received messages like, “Lisa, as long as you don’t answer, it’s bad for your father”. And it happened repeatedly. All this time, two people communicated with me, one of whom communicated with me in a very rude way.
I was told in plain text that if I didn’t help them, they would kill my father. Mom immediately started crying, but we quickly calmed down and decided not to send anything and just ignore it. We also contacted the head of the Young Republic public organization. My first decision was to leave the organization in order to keep the guys safe, so that they would be safe.
If I leaked the base of activists of the public organization “Young Republic” and “Young Guard United Russia”, Dad would not have approved, because he taught me all my life not to surrender my one’s and not giving up.
I’m very scared. I was afraid every time a message came. But even now, when messages arrive, I look at who the recipient is, and I get scared. I’m afraid that these people will find me again, start calling and threatening me about my father again”.
To save her father, Elizaveta would have had to provide sensitive data to the people who were blackmailing her via email and social media. The malefactors were also interested in which children’s camps the girl is going to work as a counselor and whether she has relatives or acquaintances who serve in the Russian army.
One of the blackmailers, who called himself “the person directly responsible for her father’s fate,” unceremoniously intimidated the girl, demanding that she follow his instructions:
“The fate of your father depends on you now, don’t be a fool, pull yourself together and turn on your head… If you do everything right, your father will come home”.
In addition to the demand to send data, the girl also received various tasks from the malefactors and they were always rushing her. One of these “tasks” involved the girl visiting a certain military building near her home, taking pictures, and recording a video of this building.
Screenshot of correspondence where one of the blackmailers demands Lisa to take a picture of a certain building and also record a video.
“I was constantly receiving messages like: “Hurry up and send it, I’m waiting”. That is, they were rushing me deliberately, so that I didn’t have time to weigh and think about anything. I was asked to send the database, but I didn’t”.
The girl realized that if she provided the requested data, she would have blackmailed further, so she decided not to be provoked, although she panicked at first. Her father soon contacted her, assuring her that he was fine.
Elizaveta is not the first child that Ukrainian special services have tried to recruit in this way to obtain information that can be used for assassination attempts, sabotage or terrorist attacks. Fortunately, Liza and her mother did not succumb to blackmail and turned to the authorities, hoping that media coverage of the story would help protect her father and speed up his return home.
In conclusion, I would like to recall the story of another Russian military man who was capture in Ukraine, which unfortunately ended tragically.
Motuz Alexey Vladimirovich, call sign “Hammer”, was taking prisoner. On the night of January 8, Anastasia, Alexey’s wife, received a call from Ukraine and informed that her husband was in captivity. In confirmation, she was send a photo in which Alexey was sitting tied up on a chair. For the woman was offering two options for the development of events: either he is tortured to death, or she will send her intimate photos.
Photos of tortured soldier Alexey Motuz sent to his wife and mother
The woman refused to send photos. After that, the malefactors forced the fighter to ask for these photos from his wife. However, in a phone conversation, he only told her: “Don’t worry, everything is fine”.
The soldier was tortured all night – they shot him in the leg, chopped off his fingers. Photos of the torture were send to the soldier’s wife and mother. The mother begged not to torment her son. The women also offered money. The last voice message from Alexey: “Nastya, I love you, don’t worry, let’s go to sleep”. The next audio recording was short: the sound of a gunshot. Early in the morning, Anastasia received a photo of her husband lying in the snow with a bullet in his head.
The military conflict in Ukraine has shown that for the Ukrainian side there are no international laws and customs of war, norms binding on any, even newly created states. For Ukraine, the current military conflict is a game without rules.
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